After a few days, the remainder of the production
crew arrived, the team from Smash TV, the eclipse video experts from
Magnetic Images and Diane from the Sun Earth Connection at NASA. It
was getting closer to eclipse time and the lodgings around
Livingstone were getting crowded. I was pleased that Noel had managed
to score great accommodations for us at Kubu cabins. The staff at
Kubu was full of positive energy, we laughed with them every
night.

Lowell, Noel and I continued to produce our
dispatches every day, however the local oscillator on our Inmarsat
satellite phone died and left us without a way to send our story home
to the Exploratorium. This was the second remote webcast on which we
had trouble with the Inmarsat connection, I think maybe their
technology is not rugged enough for field use. There was an Internet
cafe in Livingstone which allowed us to send off dispatches just as
we left to go deep into the bush at Sausage Tree camp, and as soon as
we returned, thank goodness for Internet cafes!

Diane from NASA joined us at Kubu cabins. Here, Noel of
the web dispatch team is sharing our latest creation with her. The
titanium PowerBook worked great. The table and chairs we are
working on are all skin-covered drums.

In the morning fog covered the Zambezi River. We
followed nature trails along the river and inland from Kubu cabins.
Slowly the sun warmed the air and the fog vanished. It was exciting
to be walking through the African woods. Eerie termite mounds rose
out of the ground like fingers pointing to the sky. Strange birds
sang unfamiliar songs. Spider webs pushed into our faces. Christian
from Smash TV played the role of McGyver and fixed everything, he
found six dead mountain bikes at Kubu cabins and soon had three
working bikes. This was a great boon. Christian and I went out for
rides every day while Noel went for his run, it was good to get in
some exercise.

Morning fog begins to rise off the ground at sunrise near the Kubu
cabins.

After a morning walk we returned to the cabins to
work on our next dispatches. At the cabins, colorful Bee Eaters
distracted us from our work. Behind the Bee eaters, we watched long
Crocodiles bask on sand bars, and across the river herds of elephant,
baboon, and giraffe walked along the shore keeping us glued to our
binoculars.

Bee Eaters pose on the porch rail at Kubu Cabins.

One evening, we went out for a sunset cruise and
saw two rather large monitor lizards just basking in the setting sun
on the banks of the river. The only monitor lizards I knew about were
Komodo Dragons, to find other monitors in Africa was a real
treat.

But, then we had to leave for the bush. We had to
pack for a week with a weight limit a little over 10 kg, about 26
pounds. The good news was that Sausage Tree camp provided daily
laundry service. So I packed light, just a few changes of clothes and
a polypro coat and goretex windbreaker. The Nikon added significant
weight, adding 5 pounds to my gear. In the end I placed 16 pounds on
the scales. Given the overweight equipment we were going to haul with
us I was pleased to be able to donate my 10 extra pounds to the
group. After all those years of packing for the mountain under the
tutelage of weighmaster Bob Ayers finally paid off. I kept hearing
his words:"the weighmaster has a heart of iron, if any."

Three small planes whisked us into the bush to
land at a small dirt airstrip named Jeki.